My experience with the supernatural has been disappointingly few and far between. I do not actively seek it out like some, but I do keep an eye out for it. Something which has become child’s play as thanks to the book which has been provided to me by my late boss. However, I have recently come into contact with what I believe to be the fae, or at least a subset of them as it has some strange manifestation. My reasoning is that the book has described them as creatures of whim and desire, born from it as much as they are caged by it. Whether it be from a traveller wishing to be led home by a friendly flame, only for that flame to lead deep into the bogs or marshes, or for a sailor to have those familiar luxuries that he enjoyed at home, only to be dragged to a watery grave. Whether it be out of malice or they know no better than the humans that spawned them is still a question in the community, one I had been interested in knowing the answer to until now.
Most are seemingly representations nature itself, echoes from a time where the individual aspects were worshipped, but the one I have seen recently hails from a far more sinister background. One filled with ill intent. Death is a part of nature as much as the fields of flowers or that bird on a breeze I suppose but seeing something embodying it is disturbing. Did it spring from someone’s specific desire for me dead? Or a more general hatred of life? I wouldn’t disregard the former, considering my firm rejections of Nikolaus in the past and present, especially considering that it hunts with purpose, but there are rumours of the latter… Something I would have enjoyed looking into had I more time. Mayhap the one who stumbles across these entries would look into them instead, the nature of fae.
Such speculations are useless to me now. I have stored the notes alongside these journals, whoever succeeds me should have an easier time finding them then, and if someone else were to find them… Well, appeasing them with that book may dissuade a more rigorous search through these journals. I have still kept copies of the more important sections however, though I do not know where I am going to keep them. Alas, thinking too much about it will get me nowhere and my time remaining on this plane is short.
Despite my long life I still feel myself mourning the loss of the rest of my life span. Even the loss of appropriate goodbyes to my family and friends. I shall do what I can of course, and I hope that the contingencies I have left will keep those close to me safe.
Keira had read this entry a few times. It wasn’t the last one in the book, but from analysing the entries she figured that he had written them after this one in a rush, considering the increasingly cramped scribbles of his cursive. In a certain sense, it truly was the very last entry that he had given, the last one he had put his thoughts and feelings into. It was hard to read the entry and not imagine the kindly old man, to not get a little choked up. She hadn’t gone out in search of the corpse yet; instead choosing to mull over it for a day and read the rest of the journals before going to act on her idea. There could have been more information that would have been valuable after all, and while putting it off indefinitely would do her no good, neither would rushing into it without gathering all the facts that are useful to her. The last entry certainly had some interesting things but nothing directly related to her dilemma. So, with a sigh she picked up her now emptied bag and instead dumbed some plastic bags and rubber gloves in it.
Keeping the thing in her bag was the exact opposite of an ideal situation but Palotl had failed to mention what to do once she had the vessel. Hopefully it would tell her when she falls asleep, much like what happened the last time, so she didn’t have to keep it in her bag too long. She called out to her parents that she was going to the town centre and then headed out to look for the body.
The walk was a couple of minutes at the longest but by the time she got to the house and checked behind the garden, the body was gone, leaving nothing but a blackened stain on a bush behind. Keira cursed under her breath and rummaged around the surrounding area, but it had just vanished. She ran a hand through her hair and remained squatting next to the bush for a while, debating what her next move should be and then a cough brought her out of her deliberations. Standing behind her was none other than Gastele leaning against a tree and swinging the body back and forth.
“Looking for something?”
“Yes, and I would appreciate it if you gave me that back.”
“Would you now.” Gastele’s eyes narrowed slightly, but with a shrug the expression was gone again, as well as the corpse she was holding. “I’m not going to give it to you or use it as a bargaining chip right now, it would be more beneficial to me if the vessel you use is that of a human. Or better yet, the vessel I use.”
“I’m not going to give you the deal if you’re going to use a human vessel.”
“And at that, we are at an impasse.”
“We don’t have to be if you tell me why using that,” Keira gestured to the empty space around Gastele, “is not going to work.”
“I don’t think you’ll be able to understand the intricacies behind it.” Gastele remained leaning casually against the tree, her smile never slipping, and her body language staying relaxed. Keira didn’t have to rely on the woman’s body language though, nor her tone. If the woman had to tell the truth then that meant she had a pretty low opinion of Keira’s skills, but it also meant that avoiding the question was the only way to answer without showing her hand.
“It will work, won’t it?”
“A pointless revelation, it doesn’t change the fact that the potential vessel is still under my care.”
“Why won’t you let me use it? I’d argue that it’s better because then you don’t have it going around and pretending to be a normal person. And people thinking it’s a normal person until it’s too late.” Gastele hummed and seemed to be debating something before finally kicking off from the tree and closing the distance between them.
“I give nothing for free, you tell me how you knew using the corpse would work, and in return, I’ll tell you your folly.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“…Those are reasonable terms.” And then Keira launched into a shortened version of events, of going to her grandma’s, of finding the journal, of her thought process. At the end of it Gastele was massaging her jaw and nodding slowly.
“Isn’t that interesting… Very well. Now it’s my turn to hold my end of the bargain. These sorts of beings possess the vessel in order to interact with our plane until the vessel expires, or they have gathered enough power to ascend. Essentially to exist on the material plane without a material form, to wield their boundless power with no restrictions. How they possess the vessel is by worming their way into the brain and puppeteering the body, but the way they hijack the body isn’t necessarily lethal. If you were to hand it a dead body, it would be able to operate it with minimal resistance. If you were to hand it something with a will… The stronger the will the stronger the resistance. It would not solve the problem, but it will give me some time to come up with a more… permanent solution.”
“Good plan but Palotl told me that the vessel has to be dead. That I have to kill someone, or something. That I have no other choice.”
“It told you that it had be dead as part of the contract formed?” Keira hesitated, thinking back on her interactions with Palotl. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll offer you two more pieces of advice before I consider us even. As long as the information is not part of the contract, it can lie to you.”
“Unlike you then.” Gastele paused a little before conceding a nod.
“The second piece of information is that even when setting the terms it can twist meanings and lie by omission or technical truths. So, for example, if it says you have no other choice, it may be saying that because it won’t give you another choice, not because said choice doesn’t exist.”
“Wouldn’t you be bound by those same rules?”
“Was it in the contract? Or brought up afterwards?”
“It was brought up afterwards, I wouldn’t have accepted otherwise.”
“How noble. In any case, I believe that proves my point. I implant your patron into an unsuspecting human and they live out the rest of their short happy life, and upon their death your patron will take over the body for a hopefully brief period of time before I or my associates banish back to its home plane. Everyone wins.”
“I accept as long as I’m the vessel.” The smile that Gastele had been sporting slipped slightly and her expression became more vicious.
“That would be the same as doing nothing.” Keira paused.
“It’ll take over my body if I die?”
“Do we have a deal or not?”
“No.” Gastele didn’t like that answer. Keira could tell, even though nothing in her body language or tone gave it away.
“Why not?”
“I’m not going to subject someone else to my fate, and from the sounds of things, this is already the ideal state of affairs.” A beat passed. Then Gastele sighed.
“I should have expected this. You are but a child after all and weighing someone else’s life against the rest of humanity would be too much to ask. Your current state is temporary, more so than the one I proposed.” There was definitely more that Gastele wasn’t telling her, but Keira didn’t have the knowledge necessary to grasp at what it was. Only that it had something to do with her specifically. Keira was slightly curious as to how much Gastele knew on Palotl’s plans though, it had said its goal is to purge the sickness, but Gastele seemed to think that it was to wipe out humanity. Keira personally thought that they meant one and the same, but Gastele might think differently.
“The rest of humanity? When I last talked with Palotl, it had only talked about purging some sickness. A parasite more specifically.”
“Hm. Elaborate on that.”
“Only if you tell me what it means.” Gastele tilted her head to the side, so Keira pushed a little bit more. “It was extremely vague when telling me about it’s goals, if you want me to tell you something useful I need to know more about it.”
“A solid argument. Alas, it does not change the fact that… Palotl, as you call it, could have meant a multitude of different things, or all at the same time. What information I give you doesn’t matter, and as I have mentioned before, we’re even.”
“I don’t care what you give me, as long as you give me something. I’ll trade more information if I have to.” Gastele cocked an eyebrow up and chuckled before rebutting Keira.
“Do you even have anything else that would interest me?” Keira met the woman’s gaze head on however.
“Florian.” I was one of the few names that had turned up in the journals, and while she didn’t think Gastele would want to know about it, it might tempt her into another deal. And from the way her eyes narrowed, Keira was right.
“Charming. But the man has been dead for five years.”
“What about his protégée, Nikolaus?”
“Also died five years ago.”
“Then why do I have a journal entry written four years ago, stating that he was alive.” This gave Gastele pause, her expression faltering slightly.
“I find those terms acceptable, elaborate.”
“My grandfather was interested in the supernatural and in the last years of his life he was approached by someone he had met a few times before, someone who thought that they had leverage with him, for his knowledge. He refused to give what he had to Nikolaus, brought the man up by name. The last true entry described something hunting him.” Gastele was silent for a moment before she nodded her head.
“Very well. As for your question, I shall simplify these parasites into two groups. The first is the most difficult to deal with as they have no hosts or vessels on this plane of existence. Afterall, your friend is not the only being of unimaginable power out there, and these other beings that hide in the farthest recesses of reality have very few goals aside from spreading until the only constant is them. They access this plane by burrowing into the beliefs of humans, infecting their cultures and religions slowly gathering power until they have enough influence on this plane to come through in their entirety. To ascend. The only way to truly purge these parasites is to wipe out humanity.”
“A-ah. Is the second group any better to deal with?”
“Significantly. Though still out of the realm of your capabilities to deal with. It is what happens whenever these beings do have a host or vessel on this plane. Like you, for example. They already have people willing to commit the ritual to their ascension and have solid wells of power on this plane. These sorts are the second phase, the first group always progresses to the second and the way to deal with them remains the same. Kill the hosts.”
“I thought you said that the way to deal with them was easier.”
“It is. You now have a much smaller pool of people to get rid of, which is better for your weak stomach I reckon. If you’re lucky, the hosts won’t even have their humanity left! They’ll just be little puppets on a string whose sole purpose is to either spread the parasite on the plane, or to bring it in full force.”
“That really makes me feel better.” Gastele didn’t have anything else to say to that, or acknowledge the obvious sarcasm, she just stood there with that big smile on her face. Keira did have another question, though she wasn’t sure how willing Gastele would be to answer it. “Hypothetically if I could deal with that second type of parasite, in its entirety, would Palotl lose interest in ascending.”
“It’s… certainly a possibility. It is also something that you will have to talk out with it, however. Beyond the summoning ritual itself, that is all the help I’m willing to give.”
“Right.”
“Do contact me when you change your mind.” Keira was about to scold Gastele on her use of ‘when’, but by the time she opened her mouth the woman was gone. Instead she let out a heaving sigh and picked up her backpack again, already thinking about how to get around this new road block.